We Don't Talk About the Madrigals

Chapter 5- Beasty

The nursery was decorated similarly to the rest of the home, dark and colorless. Two of the walls had paintings, one of the vultures circling a dead carcass and the other was a shark swimming up to the surface with a seagull underneath it. A rocking chair sat by the window. The bookshelf held multiple books and a stuffed bird.

Pepa and Felix carried the newborn into the room, placing him in the tedious cradle with a mobile made of broken mirror shards. The adults were all crowded around the cradle, watching Antonio rip the head off the rag doll he had.

The rest of the children stood at the doorway. The adults around the cradle laughed as Antonio shot an arrow at the ceiling. 

"When a new baby is born, one of the others has to die." She said. Camilo scoffed and shook his head.

"But you didn't kill Luisa and Mirabel," Camilo pointed out.

"I couldn't kill Luisa because she can break anything thrown at her." Luisa nodded in agreement. Since the day she was born, Luisa broke every rock and bent every blade that came her way.

"That is true," He shrugged. "What about Mirabel?"

"She tried to feed me to Arfi." Mirabel explained, "Then papá stopped her before he could close his mouth."

Camilo stared at her. His eyes narrowed, starting to grow cautious about Isa's warning. "Which one of us has to go?"

"They only need one boy." she whispered.

The children looked back into the room, seeing everyone else entranced by the new baby's shrieks.

"They're like a hex," Isa whispered, her voice growing somewhat haunting and mysterious. "Children can make anyone fall into a spell with their cursing smiles and giggles, making them do whatever they want."

Camilo looked back at the nursery, seeing the other children inside. Pepa was now holding Antonio, sitting in the rocking chair. Rain poured throughout the room, the lightning making the baby continue the shriek with laughter.

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Camilo made several attempts to get rid of Antonio.

The brother tried to use the guillotine but the baby surprisingly caught it an inch before the blades sliced. He then tried to feed him to Arfi, but the plant attempted to take a bite out of Camilo instead. He even tried to drop Antonio from the roof, with the help of Isabela. That is until Casita moved the roof tiles, catching the baby. He slid down the tiled roof to an open window.

The open window led to Pepa's room, where Felix sat in a chair and admired the night sky. The baby slid on his lap, laughing from the amusing fall.

He tried to ask Dolores for help, but she wanted nothing to do with his plan. Mostly because she already had a growing headache, and didn't need Camilo to make it worse. Luisa was busy with her daily patrols of the Madrigal's home and Mirabel already grew close with Antonio, often helping Pepa and Felix take care of him. The eldest boy saw it as another victim of the beast's curse,

He didn't bother asking Isabela, because he knew she would most likely succeed in this manslaughter. Yet, after seeing Camilo's many failed attempts at getting rid of the new beast, Isabela finally took matters into her own hands. She always did prefer to work alone when it came to these sorts of things.

Late in the night, after the family went to sleep, Isa crept into Antonio's room. He was silently sleeping in the cradle, the moonlight shining on the mirror shards. Isabela looked out the window, the creatures of the forest howling and chirping in the forest.

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Isabela held her youngest cousin in her arms, walking deep through the woods behind the house. With the terrible stories about the outside world and the intruders who dared to come in, she and the rest of her family never went past the front gate.

She noticed Antonio was fast asleep in the wrapped blanket. He almost looked dead.

"Your hex won't work on me, you beast," She said to him. "If this doesn't get rid of you, then I don't know what will,"

Isa made it to a small clearing in the forest. He placed her cousin at the edge of a tree on a pile of leaves. The area was quiet, with the occasional wolf howling echoing through the trees. With that, she turned and walked away. She didn't look back, knowing her mission was complete.

Unbeknownst to her, a curious serpent was hiding in the tree. As soon as she was out of sight, the snake slithered down to the baby. The reptile hissed, wrapping its body around the baby. Antonio woke up from his slumber, seeing the scaly skin wrap around him. The yellow eyes stared deep into Antonio's, the serpent's forked tongue hissing. The boy smiled, seeing not a slimy piece of vermin, but a peculiar critter who protected him from the dark woods.

The brown-spotted snake looked back in the direction where Isabel walked. He got a hold of the blanket with his mouth and slithered to the baby's home.

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The next morning, Pepa felt something was off. Her cloud wasn't producing any drops of water, not even a roar of thunder. She walked to Antonio's room seeing a deviant sight. Her son appeared next to her, rubbing his eyes as he yawned. Isa stood beside her cousin hearing, based on the baby's shrieks, that her attempted murder had failed.  The two cousins looked in the room, eyes widening.

A large condor perched on the shade rim. A young jaguar, who sniffed toward the people at the door, was sleeping on the carpet. Next to the large cat was a rather large snake playing with Antonio, as he squealed in delight.

"Looks like we have an animal guy," Camilo joked.

"What did you do now?" his mother asked. He held his hand up in defense.

"I had nothing to do with this,"

"You think I don't know you tried to get rid of your new brother!" Her thunders slowly rumbled above her. She shoved him into the room, "We'll talk about this after breakfast, I need coffee,"

Pepa left for the kitchen, leaving Isabela and Camilo with the zoo of animals. The middle child looked at his brother, who was now playing with the jaguar. The cat snarled at Camilo, who flinched at him.

"Nice kitty," He nervously said. The jaguar roared, making Camilo yelp, and sprinted out the door. The cat roared again as it chased after him and the condor flew out the window. Isa stood aside, smirking at her cousin's cries for help. She walked into the room, bending down to Antonio's eye level.

The snake slithered between them, hissing at the teenage girl. The serpent snapped his fangs at her, yet she didn't recoil.

She raised her hand above her, her nails sharpened. Isabela hissed back at the snake. He lowered his head in fear, while Antonio smiled at her.

"I hate you," She plainly sighed. "Beasty,"
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Author's Note: Sorry it's been forever since I update. A lot has happened these past couple of months. Also, I've been sick this past week.

Follow me on Instagram, I post a lot on my story. Link on my profile!

Anyway, I'll try to update more often!

Thanks for reading!